Hypermarkets expect sales increases in December

The large hypermarket networks expect sales increase in the last month of the year against the same time in 2007, and say the winter holidays will bring them 25-30% more clients than in a regular period, in 2008, as well. "We are expecting our December sales to be higher than in December 2007 in stores opened more than a year ago. Although consumers could prove cautious, the goal of having plentiful holidays will prompt consumers to allocate a large part of their budget for holiday purchases," said Andreea Mihai, marketing manager of Carrefour Romania, the largest hypermarket network in terms of value of sales. Additionally, the representative of the French retailer estimates significant rises in the customer flow starting in the last few days of November and up until the last few days before the traditional holidays. In fact, hypermarket networks have extended their opening hours in December by at least two or three hours a day, in order to cope with the higher customer flow.